


Concussion

by Callaeidae3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Concussions, Gen, Head Injury, Heavy Angst, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Whump, Post Season 7, Shiro (Voltron) Whump, Shiro (Voltron) is a Mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 05:58:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16781005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: BTHB: ConcussionKeith wakes up after suffering a head injury, unable to remember the whole ordeal but seeing the effect's it's had on the some of the others. Sequel to Don't Run (BTHB: Traumatic Touch Aversion).





	Concussion

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by @himecchi! :) You can find the bingo card I'm writing this from on my Tumblr @callaeidae3!
> 
> Set post-Season 7

_Calm. Calm. Safe._

Keith lets himself be pulled into the ebb and flow of Black’s consciousness washing over him. She warns him not to lose himself in it, but he’s pulled under anyway. Black gives way to a different kind of black.

He feels the physical calm begin to settle in now. His heart’s not beating so hard. What adrenaline he had leaves him and he crashes, but then Black’s presence nuzzles him with reassurance and he decides to trust whatever’s holding him afloat.

But wasn’t he sinking…?

Keith swims back to consciousness.

The first thing he’s aware of is how heavy his head feels. There’s a slight pressure wound around it and the itch of bandage pressing against his forehead. He’s not sure when that got there. Was it always there?

When he manages to force his eyes open, he’s confused. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembers being released from hospital, but the room he’s in is definitely a Garrison hospital room, even if it does look different from what he remembers. Perhaps he was moved somewhere else?

But then why is he wearing his flight suit?

There’s an IV in the back of his hand. Keith twitches his fingers and the needle stings him. It reminds him of scorpions out in the desert, where –

A blurry flash of memory, of walking around Sendak’s crashed ship. Just that, nothing else. He tries to remember when he came back from there but finds he can’t.

Keith groans. Why is it all so confusing?

A sharp intake of breath. Keith’s too tired to move his head but thankfully he doesn’t have to – the person moves into his field of vision for him.

It’s Shiro. He looks absolutely shattered.

Keith frowns. “Yhhu ‘kay?”

Shiro’s face is a mess of desert dirt and tear tracks. It makes the shadows beneath his eyes seem a lot darker and the scar running over the bridge of his nose more prominent. There’s a haunted look about the way he stares, and Keith can’t for the life of him figure out why.

“Good to see you awake,” Shiro whispers, voice catching. “H-how are you feeling?”

It scares him. Keith doesn’t remember falling asleep – or rather, passing out.

He swallows. “Um…I’m okay?”

Shiro watches the changes in his expression and then starts crying. He grips Keith’s hand, the one without the IV in it, and leans over to hide his face in the end of the thin blanket laid out over Keith’s waist and legs.

“Sh’r…?”

The door opens. In his peripheral, white and blue and yellow and green rush into the room. Hunk and Pidge sigh in nervous relief, but Lance seems to be too much in a state of shock similar to Shiro’s to share in their reaction.

“Guys…” Keith begins hesitantly. “C’n you tell me wh’s goin’ on?”

Lance looks stricken. “I, uh…”

“Do you not remember?” Pidge asks.

If his head didn’t weigh like concrete, Keith would’ve shaken his head. “I-I don’t… can y’ll stop staring at me like that? Y’re scaring me.”

Hunk casts a worried look at Shiro who’s still bent over, shoulders shaking. He glances between Lance and Pidge, Lance who can’t find the words and Pidge who doesn’t look like she wants to be the one to say anything.

Keith’s stomach churns. “Guys?”

“You, uh…you hit your head,” Hunk says.

“I…when?”

Pidge wrings her hands. “An hour and a half ago. At least, they brought you in an hour and a half ago.”

“Do you remember anything?” Lance asks quietly.

Keith doesn’t even recall ever hitting his head, let alone ‘being brought in’. If he’s been out for over an hour, and if everyone’s acting the way they are, especially Shiro, then it can’t have been a minor hit on the head scenario.

He closes his eyes a moment, opens them. “T-the desert. I w’s out in the desert… with Shiro…at, um, at Sendak’s ship. We were _looking_ for something?”

Shiro hiccups and sniffs. His sobs aren’t so quiet now.

“Um…”

Lance sighs. He runs a hands over his jaw, averting his gaze. “Well, if you can remember that much that’s good enough, right?”

Hunk and Pidge glance at Keith, brows furrowed.

Keith doesn’t like it one bit.

“Guys,” he says. “Tell me the truth. I-I want to know the truth. What happened? What happened to me?”

Shiro’s hand tightens on his. Lance moves over to the side of the bed to lay a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. Pidge does the same, wrapping her arms around him from behind while Hunk folds his arms and stays where he is.

With a slight cough, Hunk says, “You scared us pretty bad, man. Really bad. You, uh…when you hit your head – when the piece of shrapnel from Sendak’s ship hit your head – you weren’t yourself. You, uh…” he trails off, voice becoming less sure of itself. “You, um… you ended up falling. Over the side of the cliff.”

Keith blinks. “The cliff? As in the canyon.”

Lance’s face pales. “Yeah.”

A silence chokes the room of air. No one continues the explanation, leaving Keith even more confused. He can wriggle his toes and move his legs fine, so he can’t have damaged his spine badly. There’s no bandages on him that he can feel except the one on his head, and the fact that he’s awake and coherent is enough to tell him that the worst the head injury seems to have gotten is a concussion.

But if he fell over the edge of the canyon, how come his only injury is his head?

No one is willing to give him the answer. At least, not now. Pidge looks like she’d be okay with giving the explanation, but the tightness with which Shiro is gripping his hand is enough for Keith to understand why she refrains from giving it. Hunk and Lance seem to be on the same page as her.

As for Shiro…

If only Keith could remember what had happened.


End file.
